Saturday, December 17, 2011

Holidays

With the holidays we do not have class for 3 weeks!! 3 weeks - wow. That means we have loads of time for training. Puppies say - thank goodness!!

Wednesday night Irie and Bug both worked on duration in their stays and finished with playing Dog Brick. I forgot to bring my Flip down so did not get to video Irie's first attempt. She found Dog Brick much more difficult than Magic (as she should). She hasn't figured out how to push with her nose yet. She is very oral and tries to pick everything up. Unfortunately these pieces cannot be picked up! She did start to get it, but it took a lot longer than Magic.

Bug needs a more difficult dog game. I might see if I can borrow the difficult Kyjen game my agility trainer has. It is star shapes and I think it has 4 pieces that spin.

Katrin's Monty is staying with us for a few days while his mum attends a wedding. Irie thinks he was invited over just for her and Monty says, "doG save me!!"

Bug had PT on Thursday and, hooray, he was in good shape. Still too skinny though. He has been getting increased calories for 2+ weeks and hasn't gained any weight. I re-ordered some Organic Coconut Oil from Swanson's Health Supplies (they have a great price - $6.79 for 16 oz. and flat $4.99 shipping) and will begin adding that to his diet again once it arrives. I am tempted to do the pancreatic function test because I am not sure why he is losing weight. However, he is not showing the typical signs of EPI, at all (YAY), and I know Dr. F would just say it is a matter of his energy being out of balance and finding a "name" for what is going on will only make me feel better not accomplish anything. Which is true.

All three dogs also saw the chiropractor. The boys were in pretty good shape, but Ms. Irie's pelvis was out. I had noticed her stools were loose, so I am not surprised. This doesn't happen with Bug, but when Ike's pelvis is out he usually has diarrhea. The loose stool started when I started giving Irie lamb, so I am pretty sure it doesn't agree with her. Cheryl (the chiro) is currently doing some advanced schooling in Kansas and one of her classmates is a vet and an acupuncturist. She told Cheryl that Lamb is a "hot" meat, which I knew, and that it should not be given to allergy dogs. This is counter to what "we" are told. Generally people/vets suggest lamb and rice for allergy dogs, so I thought that was interesting.

Oh! I almost forgot to mention - Irie has her 2nd herding lesson scheduled for the week between Christmas and New Years. I can't wait! I think John might be able to come so perhaps we will even have VIDEO!

8 comments:

Half brother Zen says, "Keep up the good work!" He came to be demo dog for training certain behaviors in the Service Dog 101 class I am teaching. In about a half hour he picked up going to his mat, switching sides while heeling, walk through a crowd heeling, and back to back short sit stays with recalls. He had the hardest time with leave it with so much tasty food on the floor. :)

You are making me feel guilty :-)I've got a break from training too, but must admit I will do no "at-home" work whatsoever. It means Jimmy will be a raving lunatic when class resumes, oh well.....

I find it interesting how often your guys need a pelvic adjustment. My guys have never had their pelvises out of whack at one of their chiro checks. It's always the first rib for them. Do you think it has to do with the individual vets and how they focus their chiro work?

About Me

Homeopathy Blog for the Boy

Ike

Silvermist Icebreaker NAC, CL1-R CL1-H (CGC TDI)

Ike is the first dog that is purely my own. We have overcome some big hurdles with his fear of people (how can you avoid them!) and continue to work on building our confidence in the sport of agility. Ike takes life at a much slower speed than I do, which is a challenge. My goal for our partnership is to figure out a sport or joint activity that Ike and I can enjoy equally and excel at together. This would be in addition to Ike's #1 sport, lounging on the couch; which I don't really enjoy or excel at.

Carmen

Carmen is a 9 yo salt-n-pepper Miniature Schnauzer from the same breeder as Ike. I started working with Carmen in the winter of '08 after my DH told me we could not get another dog until the end of 2008 (enter Bug 5/08). Little did I know how much joy she would take in agility and what a spitfire she would be. We are having a ton of fun working together. Unfortunately, Carmen was diagnosed with PRA (Progressive Retinal Atrophy) in 10/08 and has been retired as her vision continues to change.

Bug (Honor)

CH Visions Cornerstone Dream On (CGC) TN-N

Bug (fka Honor) is a 5 year old CWC. He is a blue merle with tan points, a LOVELY temperament and a great work ethic. He finished his AKC championship 7/3/2010. Bug is looking forward to playing in Rally Obedience and tracking/Noseworks.